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I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Healthy and Prosperous New Year! May God Bless you and your families and may we all strive to he better than what we were this past year! Growth doesn’t end until we are no longer here, so embrace change for the better and don’t let fear rule your life!

“Take Life Into Your Own Hands Before Your Life Slips Through Your Fingers” -Aris Makris

If I had to summarize what I’ve learned in the 35+ years I’ve been in the martial arts and especially through my transition as a pankratiast and the philosophy it embodies, I wouldn’t be able to, and provide the reader with a clear picture of what my experience has encountered in terms of real life and how we as people perceive things to be real for each individual and how they really are. In the wake of the recent shootings of the elementary school children and teachers who’s lives were abruptly taken from this life, we have focused more on the weapon used than the type of person who used the weapon…and the various NOT SO OBVIOUS forms or prevention. There’s so many things wrong in so many levels as the story unfolded that to put blame in the weapon itself, which in reality is made to kill…or murder…to protect…or to offend, is like saying…and forgive me for being sarcastic…Let’s get rid of spoons because they get us fat. This scenario, like the others similar was BAD all around. From what I understand, the boy had Aspergers…his mom took him to the shooting range..he got a hold of his mom’s guns(?). Having had a student with Aspergers with a fixation on violence , automatically bells and whistles started to ring in my head as to the bits behavior and fixation with extreme violence. Even his parents didn’t get the signs. Especially when he first asked me what the point is in sparring if you can’t kill the person! Did he understand what he was asking me? By our normal reasoning…No! But to him who was void without any emotional content at the thought of it…it was a normal curiosity. Btw, he was 19…a full adult. The fact that the shooter had access to his mother’s guns is also irresponsible on the part of the mom, who obviously didn’t take her son’s condition serious enough to question, 1. Whether she should be taking him to the range to shoot and 2. Whether or not her guns should be in a vault LOCKED UP! That was just the side of the parent. That doesn’t in anyway control the mindset of the son and his determination to do what was in his head. He would have gotten the job done one way it another as we all know that the ones carrying guns in a society where it is prohibited to carry. For some reason firearms of all type are readily available for those in the underworld and easier to obtain than common folk who have to go through a process to get one. And while most toute violence from firearms they seem to be ignorant or forget to mention what type of violence. Is it Gang to gang?….bad guy robbing store? Good guy killing good guy randomly? They generalize without placing light on SPECIFICITY!!! I’ve seen more people fatally and critically stabbed in my life with knives, pens, broken bottles, than shot with a gun. It only goes to prove that anybody during a fit of anger can use ANY type of weapon at hand. I’ve seen first hand the damage a knife can do to a person without it being fatal. A face so slashed up and irreparable that the person has lost their will to live…and many such incidences. But no one has mentioned a ban against knives. And there will never be one. One only needs to do a little research to see how many people are killed or seriously injured by knives per year…and not by those who know how to use one, but by those who don’t! I have come to realize that the when making statements brought forth from emotions and not rational thinking, we never find solutions to the real problem. And that’s the case here. Everyone has been touched by it and the worst thing one can do is to talk with emotions rather than concrete analysis. if we talk about getting rid of guns then we must also talk about getting rid of steak knives, butcher tools and anything that cuts. Because in essence a steak knife too is a killer. you can reason it all you want but in the end it’s not the tool, but the user. The biggest problem we have as a society that is rarely addressed is the art of PREVENTION!! We place life insurance for after we die…on our valuables and on our house and car, yet we don’t take any preventative measures to ensure out lives while we’re ALIVE!! An armed guard in front of every school would ensure no one gets in who doesn’t belong there. And if he sees the person coming with a weapon in hand…well, use your imagination. One armed teacher could have prevented the amount of life loss. But instead we aren’t looking at the cause…instead we’re focusing in the tool used. As a father my heart bled like any other patent…whether you own a gun permit and a gun it not, we fall felt the same. Only difference, and I guess you have to be in the self protection field most of your life to appreciate this but…it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. But enough if what I think as this is only my own personal opinion. Let’s see what a career police officer and specialist in The psychology of violence says. Please read the article attached. Thanks for reading this. Your comments are most welcomed.

If I had to summarize what I’ve learned in the 35+ years I’ve been in the martial arts and especially through my transition as a pankratiast and the philosophy it embodies, I wouldn’t be able to, and provide the reader with a clear picture of what my experience has encountered in terms of real life and how we as people perceive things to be real for each individual and how they really are. In the wake of the recent shootings of the elementary school children and teachers who’s lives were abruptly taken from this life, we have focused more on the weapon used than the type of person who used the weapon…and the various NOT SO OBVIOUS forms or prevention. There’s so many things wrong in so many levels as the story unfolded that to put blame in the weapon itself, which in reality is made to kill…or murder…to protect…or to offend, is like saying…and forgive me for being sarcastic…Let’s get rid of spoons because they get us fat. This scenario, like the others similar was BAD all around. From what I understand, the boy had Aspergers…his mom took him to the shooting range..he got a hold of his mom’s guns(?). Having had a student with Aspergers with a fixation on violence , automatically bells and whistles started to ring in my head as to the bits behavior and fixation with extreme violence. Even his parents didn’t get the signs. Especially when he first asked me what the point is in sparring if you can’t kill the person! Did he understand what he was asking me? By our normal reasoning…No! But to him who was void without any emotional content at the thought of it…it was a normal curiosity. Btw, he was 19…a full adult. The fact that the shooter had access to his mother’s guns is also irresponsible on the part of the mom, who obviously didn’t take her son’s condition serious enough to question, 1. Whether she should be taking him to the range to shoot and 2. Whether or not her guns should be in a vault LOCKED UP! That was just the side of the parent. That doesn’t in anyway control the mindset of the son and his determination to do what was in his head. He would have gotten the job done one way it another as we all know that the ones carrying guns in a society where it is prohibited to carry. For some reason firearms of all type are readily available for those in the underworld and easier to obtain than common folk who have to go through a process to get one. And while most toute violence from firearms they seem to be ignorant or forget to mention what type of violence. Is it Gang to gang?….bad guy robbing store? Good guy killing good guy randomly? They generalize without placing light on SPECIFICITY!!! I’ve seen more people fatally and critically stabbed in my life with knives, pens, broken bottles, than shot with a gun. It only goes to prove that anybody during a fit of anger can use ANY type of weapon at hand. I’ve seen first hand the damage a knife can do to a person without it being fatal. A face so slashed up and irreparable that the person has lost their will to live…and many such incidences. But no one has mentioned a ban against knives. And there will never be one. One only needs to do a little research to see how many people are killed or seriously injured by knives per year…and not by those who know how to use one, but by those who don’t! I have come to realize that the when making statements brought forth from emotions and not rational thinking, we never find solutions to the real problem. And that’s the case here. Everyone has been touched by it and the worst thing one can do is to talk with emotions rather than concrete analysis. if we talk about getting rid of guns then we must also talk about getting rid of steak knives, butcher tools and anything that cuts. Because in essence a steak knife too is a killer. you can reason it all you want but in the end it’s not the tool, but the user. The biggest problem we have as a society that is rarely addressed is the art of PREVENTION!! We place life insurance for after we die…on our valuables and on our house and car, yet we don’t take any preventative measures to ensure out lives while we’re ALIVE!! An armed guard in front of every school would ensure no one gets in who doesn’t belong there. And if he sees the person coming with a weapon in hand…well, use your imagination. One armed teacher could have prevented the amount of life loss. But instead we aren’t looking at the cause…instead we’re focusing in the tool used. As a father my heart bled like any other patent…whether you own a gun permit and a gun it not, we fall felt the same. Only difference, and I guess you have to be in the self protection field most of your life to appreciate this but…it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. But enough if what I think as this is only my own personal opinion. Let’s see what a career police officer and specialist in The psychology of violence says. Please read the article attached. Thanks for reading this. Your comments are most welcomed.